I have family members that are in administrative positions at my city's local hospital and they were discussing the flu vaccine shortage tonight. As I was listening, I couldn't help form wondering why the U.S. purchases vaccines from other countries? I am a strong proponent of the rights of the individual and I definitely don't want a socialist-type government that the Democrats are pulling for. But my question is: why would it be bad if the U.S. constructed an agency to oversee and produce vaccines exclusively for our country. Then the government could raise tarrifs on foreign vaccines and people would buy domestic vaccines. This would further propagate the system and help fund it for the next season. This shortage was created by a human flaw in the production of the vaccine by a business from a country across an ocean! This agency would also create federal jobs for individuals out of work and insure that a closer eye would be kept on the production and validity of the vaccines. Besides, people bitch about outsourcing and then they willingly GIVE money away by purchasing foreign made goods,

Please post your reasons why you think this would be a bad idea or the side of the coin that I am just not seeing.

Why establish any more govt. bureaucracy???   There are already domestic companies engaged in this type of work that would gear up to do this... provided they thought they could make a profit doing it.  Keep it private - remove some of the roadblocks and I think the results would be more efficient than a gov’t run/managed program.  How about relieving them of some of their products liability exposure, lowering their taxes, and “encouraging” the FDA to be a little more proactive with them.